ROBBINSVILLE — With the new scheduling format in girls lacrosse, where teams from both divisions must play each other this season, it has forced coaches into some creative thinking when games turn into early blowouts.

Robbinsville coach Jan Pittas was in just such a situation on Thursday in the Ravens’ 17-3 victory over Hamilton, which began a running clock just minutes into the second half when Robbinsville took an 11-1 lead.

The Ravens (2-1) had already worked on their possession game late in the first half, holding the ball for nearly five minutes with attempting a shot. They were able to do a little more of it after intermission as Pittas wants to keep her team sharp for when the powerhouse teams begin to surface on the schedule.

“We just really concentrate on fundamentals,” Pittas said. “Just good passing and catching, cutting, body position, transition, movement. We have a settled offense but we run our plays. We kind of figured one of our plays wasn’t going to work with their style of defense and we needed to abort that and try other things.”

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The biggest thing was not to fall into bad habits.

“It’s definitely about just keeping everything clean and crisp and tidy, and not to get into any kind of sloppy play,” Pittas said. “I really talked to them before the game about that. I don’t want to see any sloppy play because this is an opportunity to really practice those fundamentals and put them into a game setting.

“We’ve had a long week of practice, we haven’t had a game since last Thursday. It’s nice to see they could put that stuff into a game situation and they did well.”

They wasted little time taking control, as two goals each by Courtney Allen and Emily Martin and one apiece from Emily Kratz and Erin Pittas gave Robbinsville a 6-0 lead in the game’s first 11 minutes. The score swelled to 9-0 before Lashay Ross scored the first of her three goals for Hamilton.

It was 10-1 at halftime and the outcome was never in doubt, but the Ravens were intent on staying focused.

“You just have to think about it,” said Jillian Fascenda, who scored five goals. “You practice for this. You practice when to stall and how to keep the ball on your side so that they don’t get it and get a comeback. It really makes a difference if they get the ball or if you keep it.”

Hamilton coach Anthony Tessein, whose team is off to a rough start against some of the Colonial Valley Conference’s top teams, had little to say and was not pleased with his team’s effort. Tessein felt in the previous games the Hornets continued playing hard throughout — a thought echoed by Notre Dame coach Bryan Fisher after the Irish beat Hamilton Tuesday — but that was not the case against Robbinsville.

As for the Ravens, they are trying stay sharp throughout the one-sided games in order to prepare for an upswing in competition.

“We tell them not to get flat,” Pittas said. “They have to keep their feet moving, they have to keep their focus. We have some huge opponents coming down the road. The past two years we’ve been in that higher league and we’ve struggled in that league.

“We’ve gotten better and a little more competitive but they know what we’ll be facing so it’s important they not let down and they just find that chemistry and find that balance. It’s really important they work with each other and get to know each other’s body language and all that stuff.”

And when presented with the opportunity to do so, the Ravens did just that.